espionage
Attempted break in at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia by illegal immigrant and Jordanian on expired student visa
A Marine breaches through a hatch during training at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va.
From The Center Square
By Bethany Blankley
GOP House members demand answers about Quantico breach, terrorist threat
Multiple members of Congress are demanding answers about the federal government’s ability to prevent a terrorist attack after two Jordanian nationals attempted to break into Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.
This is after concerns were raised about a Chinese national who recently breached a Marine Corps base in the El Centro CBP Sector after illegally entering the country, and after individuals identified as known or suspected terrorists (KSTs) are continuing to be apprehended at record numbers after illegally entering the country, The Center Square reported.
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, led a group of 12 Republican members of Congress demanding answers from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation about the Quantico breach, questioning if it constituted a terrorist attack. The letter was announced Tuesday and is dated May 23.
“A brazen attempt to infiltrate a military installation by foreign nationals from a terror-prone region rightly raises concerns as to whether this constituted a possible terrorist attack,” the House coalition said in a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Yet, the federal government has not disclosed whether this breach was terror-related.”
On May 3, two Jordanian male nationals attempted to breach a Marine Corps base using a box truck. They were eventually detained and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It was later revealed that one illegally crossed the border last month and was released into the interior by Border Patrol agents. The other overstayed his student visa and was in the country illegally. One was identified as a KST.
“The American people deserve to know the scope of the threat posed by potential terror suspects, and the extent to which the open border policies of this administration are facilitating it,” the coalition said.
Joining Roy are Republican Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar of Arizona, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Bob Good of Virginia, Mary Miller of Illinois, Barry Moore of Alabama, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Andy Ogles of Tennessee, Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin, and Randy Weber of Texas.
Last week, a coalition of 12 U.S. senators demanded answers, led by U.S. Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., of Mayorkas and Wray.
“This deeply concerning incident occurred mere weeks after a Chinese national who was in the country illegally broke into Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms on March 27,” they said.
House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., and three other Republican committee chairmen also demanded answers from Mayorkas, Wray and Department of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The committee is investigating the incident, they said, and is concerned about previous requests that remain unanswered.
In September 2023, Green and Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, sent a letter to Mayorkas, Wray, and Austin requesting information about how the agencies were responding to possible breaches of U.S. military installations and critical infrastructure from the Chinese Communist Party. According to Wall Street Journal report, Chinese nationals attempted to access U.S. military bases and other sensitive sites roughly 100 times in recent years.
DHS and the FBI “failed to provide any substantive response” to their request, they said.
In a November 2023 hearing, Mayorkas “repeatedly refused to answer when asked by Chairman Pfluger whether DHS continuously detains those found to be on the terrorist watchlist,” they said.
The greatest number of KSTs have been apprehended by CBP and Border Patrol agents under the Biden administration, The Center Square has reported. This fiscal year, they total 277, after the greatest number in U.S. history was apprehended in fiscal 2023 of 736, The Center Square reported.
“The alarming conclusion from these numbers is every day we have individuals that are on the FBI terrorist watch list that could have an intention to harm our country and are entering every single day,” former Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan told The Center Square. “It’s not if or when the threat tries to come to our country. We already know that’s happening already. The threat is already here,” he said, referring to the at least two million foreign nationals who illegally entered the country and evaded capture, some of whom may be KSTs.
The attempted breach at MCB Quantico “reflects a possibly more dire reality for the state of U.S. national security,” Green’s coalition said.
DHS’s “relaxed vetting standards” have created “an environment ripe for exploitation by individuals aiming to undermine the United States at its most critical points. If individuals on the terrorist watchlist are so emboldened to attempt to breach a Marine Corps base, the Department of Homeland Security and the entire executive branch must act swiftly to identify, apprehend, and detain such hostile actors on American soil.”
From LifeSiteNews
Toronto area ridings, including one in the city of Markham which saw Trudeau personally campaign in, are now under investigation by the ongoing Commission on Foreign Interference.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) boasted it successfully managed to get no less than eight of some 41 preferred candidates elected in Canada’s 2019 federal election, an investigative reporter’s findings have revealed.
Investigative journalist Sam Cooper, who works for The Bureau, recently made known that he was able to obtain an analysis published in February 2021 by a CCP-run group called All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC), which included the shocking revelations.
The 2019 federal election saw Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government re-elected to a second term. In that election, there were no less than 41 “distinguished Chinese candidates” who were officially endorsed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), in Toronto-area ridings that saw Trudeau personally campaign.
According to the ACFROC report, which is the main agency of the CCP’s United Front, a political group that connects mainland China to Chinese in other nations, “Trudeau Jr. personally went to seek votes at a Chinese supermarket in Markham, an area of Toronto where Chinese people live, demonstrating that Chinese votes play an important role in the general election.”
As it stands now, the Toronto area ridings, including one in the city of Markham which saw Trudeau personally campaign in, are now under investigation by the ongoing Commission on Foreign Interference. A report from the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) has shown that there are no less than 11 candidates known to have been directly influenced by China.
The main goal of the ACFROC is to “mobilize diaspora networks” that are in line with the will of the CCP, as noted by Alex Joske, author of the 2022 book Spies and Lies.
The report said that popular Chinese app WeChat was used to mobilize voters, going all the way back to the 2015 and 2011 elections.
According to Charles Burton, an expert in the Chinese language who looked at the ACFROC report for The Bureau, the use of the term “distinguished” to refer to the Chinese candidates who were nominated “implies identification of candidates potentially useful to the United Front’s aims.”
“This article clearly aims to guide the agents of the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department in their strategic work to gain leverage for China by placing persons of Chinese origin into the Parliament of Canada,” noted Burton.
LifeSiteNews recently reported that Cooper unveiled how four politicians along with one government advisor were named as allegedly being involved in a scheme backed by the CCP to purposely interfere in Canada’s electoral process.
The Foreign Interference Commission was convened to “examine and assess the interference by China, Russia, and other foreign states or non-state actors, including any potential impacts, to confirm the integrity of, and any impacts on, the 43rd and 44th general elections (2019 and 2021 elections) at the national and electoral district levels.”
The commission is headed by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, who had earlier said she and her lawyers will remain “impartial” and will not be influenced by politics. In January, Hogue said that she would “uncover the truth whatever it may be.”
As reported by LifeSiteNews, documents from a federal inquiry looking at meddling in Canada’s past two elections by foreign state actors show that agents of the CCP allegedly worked at Elections Canada polling centers during the 2021 campaign.
To date, Trudeau has been coy and has never explicitly stated whether he was ever told by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) that CCP agents’ actions were in breach of the nation’s Elections Act.
A few months ago, the head of Canada’s intelligence agency testified under oath that he gave Trudeau multiple warnings that agents of the CCP were going after Conservative MPs, yet the prime minister has denied receiving these warnings.
espionage
Breaking: Hogue Commission Will Hear From New Safety-Protected Witnesses On PRC Targeting of Chinese Candidates
Hogue Finds Witnesses Face Credible Threats, Records Will Be Sealed for 99 Years
In an extraordinary move, Canada’s foreign interference inquiry will hear testimony from two new secret witnesses with firsthand knowledge of the People’s Republic of China’s influence operations targeting electoral candidates and community associations in Canada. Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue announced the decision today, weeks after the public testimony phase concluded, revealing that the witnesses—identified only as Person B and Person C—face credible threats to their safety and that of their families due to their insights into how Beijing’s United Front Work Department (UFWD) targets Chinese Canadian politicians and community associations.
The witnesses’ identities and testimonies will be closely guarded, with only sanitized summaries made available to the public and participants. According to Hogue’s decision, Person B has provided critical insight into the UFWD’s tactics, describing how Beijing’s agents “co-opt and leverage some Chinese Canadian community associations and politicians of Chinese origin” to advance PRC interests. Much of Person B’s information is firsthand, Hogue’s decision states, suggesting the witness could produce explosive evidence relevant to high-profile cases under examination for Hogue’s final report in December.
Both witnesses expressed profound concerns about the consequences they could face if Beijing discovered their identities. Person C, in particular, described the likelihood of “threats to their physical safety, intimidation and harassment by PRC officials or sympathetic community members in Canada, and the potential loss of their employment” should their cooperation with the Commission become known. Person B similarly voiced fears of “serious repercussions,” including community ostracization and job loss, if their identity were disclosed. “This fear is based, in part, on the fact that the PRC and its United Front Work Department has infiltrated some Chinese Canadian community associations,” Hogue’s decision states.
In light of the witnesses’ statements and intelligence on PRC activities, Commission counsel deemed the witnesses’ concerns “credible.” Commissioner Hogue emphasized the necessity of these safety measures, stating, “I am satisfied by the information contained in the application that the fears expressed by Person B and Person C are not only credible, but also compelling. In light of other information that the Commission has received about the tactics of the PRC, including transnational repression, I am satisfied that the concerns expressed by Person B and Person C are reasonable.”
The extraordinary protective measures will allow the witnesses to provide their statements confidentially via affidavits, sealed for 99 years, marking an exceptional step to protect those revealing sensitive information on state actors. Commissioner Hogue further elaborated that the witnesses’ evidence is crucial to understanding the extent of Beijing’s operations in Canada but could not be accessed without protective guarantees.
Hogue’s decision marks a rare departure from standard inquiry practices, reflecting what she described as Canada’s duty to protect those who risk their safety to expose foreign influence.
Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch, which has made submissions seeking the disclosure of cabinet-protected documents in the Commission, said he welcomes the Inquiry’s decision to hear from important new witnesses.
“It’s good to see the Inquiry continue to gather evidence about foreign interference activities, especially given that its hearings in the spring and fall left many questions unanswered, mainly because the Inquiry called witnesses mostly from government and political parties who have an interest in covering up interference, loopholes, and weak enforcement,” he said.
But Conacher reiterated his reservations about the overall lack of transparency in the Commission’s proceedings and what he calls loopholes in Canada’s laws against foreign influence.
“The only way to stop foreign interference is to effectively prevent it, and it will only be prevented by closing huge loopholes in laws across Canada that allow for secret, undemocratic and unethical spending, fundraising, donations, loans, lobbying, and disinformation campaigns by foreign ‘proxies,’ and by strengthening enforcement and penalties,” he said. “Hopefully, the Hogue Inquiry will strongly recommend closing all these loopholes and strengthening enforcement and penalties.”
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